Greek businessman converted industrial relics into bustling sound stages, attracting film and TV production to the city.

Nick Mirkopoulos, who died Saturday at 71, was described as a larger-than-life entrepreneur. He was also a patron of the arts who donated to the University of Toronto and York University's faculty of fine arts, which named a screening room after him.

The eldest of five children, Mirkopoulos arrived in Canada in 1968. He was joined by his brothers Larry and Steve, and led the family contracting business, refurbishing heritage structures in Ontario.

In 1988, Mirkopoulos purchased the old Toronto Iron Works steel facility on Eastern Ave. and turned it into what was then the largest motion picture studio in Canada.

“He turned that place from a disused rathole into a beautiful working piece of urban redevelopment,” said Toronto producer and director Miles Dale.

Dale, who has worked on projects such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Cinespace lots, said Mirkopoulos was a larger-than-life figure.

Building on his success, Mirkopoulos transformed an abandoned warehouse on Queens Quay and a hospital laundry facility on Booth Ave. into studios, paying demolition crews dismantling the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway for the steel beams.

“Those Gardiner Expressway beams are now the load-bearing ceiling beams in our studios,” said Jim Mirkopoulos, the current vice-president of Cinespace.

The company is North America’s largest owner and operator of studio space.

Dennis Mills, the MP for Toronto-Danforth between 1988 and 2004, said the redevelopments brought thousands of jobs to the area, which became Toronto’s Studio District.

“Their studios were the catalyst that brought everyone from lens grinders to costume makers to set designers to carpenters — it became an enclave for people in the sector,” Mills said.

“Without those studios, we wouldn’t have attracted the level of film production from the Los Angeles studios. They would never have come here,” said Kirk Cheney, a construction co-ordinator in Toronto’s film industry for more than 30 years.

Cinespace’s sound stages were home to the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea and to Chicago, the only film shot in Canada to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Mirkopoulos also expanded into the U.S., purchasing a 20-hectare former steel plant in Chicago.

Mirkopoulos’s love of the arts was expressed philanthropically, with donations to a number of institutions, including the University of Toronto’s faculty of music and York University’s faculty of fine arts, which named a screening room after him.

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